


Christmas Market

by Judybrandtner



Series: Family of Ten [20]
Category: Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-08-21 13:19:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16577261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Judybrandtner/pseuds/Judybrandtner
Summary: Scenes of Jamie and Claire visiting a Christmas Market through the years.





	1. Newly Married

The Christmas Market was full of people, lights and the smell of mulled wine and mince pies but Claire felt a bit like in her own bubble, there tightly holding Jamie's arms as they walking around. It was going to be both their first Christmas as a married couple and the last before become a proper family with the birth of their first child on February, she was the luckiest woman in the World, she thought, as her hand caressed her baby bump, soothing the baby's own excitement.

Jamie and Claire walked around the market checking for thing they might fancy for themselves and their house, they had found pretty blue bubbles with a Celtic inspired decorations and a Santa ornament Jamie said it looked a bit like Murtagh. One of the last stands was a place which made personalised decorations, they had couples, families and genealogical Christmas trees you could add several generations of a same family and even dogs and cats you could make one for your pets as well. Claire seemed particularly enticed by one which looked just like them, a red haired man and a dark haired woman with a baby on her arms.

'Do ye want it Sassenach?' Asked Jamie beside her,

'It looks pretty.' Claire answered, 'but we don't know how we're calling the baby yet. Maybe next year, when he or she is born.'

Jamie took the ornament anyway and started to walk Claire to the till. 'The bairn is part of us already, even if 'tis no born yet.' Jamie said, joining his hand to hers on the swell of her bump. 'Let's get it, next year will just get another one with its name.'

'You want this one then.' The lady at the till said, with a strong Eastern European accent. 'Which names do you want in it?'

'Jamie and Claire.' Said Jamie to her 'And Fraser Bairn, we dinna ken yet what we're havin'.'

'Gladly you're not the first ones today.' Said the lady with a smile 'My sister and I have learn a lot of Scottish baby slang today from people not knowing how they're naming their children.' The lady gave them a post it with their names to give to her sister, sitting on a corner of the stand writing the names on the ornaments in a beautiful calligraphic script.

'Thank ye, Miss.' Said Jamie.

That evening, after they had decorated the tree, Jamie and Claire went on to cuddle on their sofa, watching a movie, steaming mugs of hot chocolate on the coffee table. Claire, sometimes taking her eyes to the family ornament, proudly sitting on a place of honour at the tree.

'Don't you sometimes think how unbelievable is it that these are going to be our one and only Christmas before becoming a family?' Claire said to Jamie.

'Aye, Sassenach, ' Jamie said, a whipped cream moustache on him after drink from his mug. 'But 'tis something to look forward. Ye, me and our bairn.'


	2. Jamie, Claire, Faith and Brian...

'Mam wat's dat?' Wee almost two-year-old Faith Fraser asked from her pram at one of the plushie animal ornaments swinging around one of the stands at the market.

'That Faith, is called a flamingo.' Claire promptly answered her daughter.

'I can think of more Christmassy animals that a flamingo Sassenach.' Joked Jamie beside her.

'Fay mingo, fay mingo.' Say Faith trying to reach the pink felt bird

'You like it, don't you?' Said Claire, already reaching for her purse to purchase the bird. 'Here you have.'

'Fay mingo!' Faith exclaimed as she grabbed and hugged the plushie flamingo.

'How are ye feelin' a graidh?' Asked Jamie, lowering his hand to Claire's big swollen belly. 'Do ye need a rest?'

'It's the fifth time you ask, you know.' Claire said, mildly annoyed, but tremendously warm at Jamie continuous attentions. 'We're fine, we'll tell you if we need a rest.'

'I ken that, and ye ken I have my reasons to worry for ye and the bairn.' Jamie answered. Of course she knew, they were her worries too. She hadn't go so far with Faith and her birth had been so traumatic that every twitch and cramp since she had passed the mark at what Faith had been born was being a source for worry. 'My apologises if I'm bein' annoying to ye mo chridhe.'

'Never apologises for that Jamie.' Claire said to Jamie with a sweet kiss.

'Mingo!' Faith broke the spell to announce her new toy had fallen out of her reach.

The laugh as Jamie reached for it and gave it back to Faith and soon they carried on with their Christmas shopping, until Claire's legs gave up and she (falsely) sat reluctantly for a rest at one of the square coffee places. There she stayed, sharing a hot chocolate and some mince pies with Faith and her flamingo, while Jamie finished with the shopping.

'I think the flamingo has got enough, Faith' Said Claire as her daughter mushed crumbs on her toys beak. 'Mince pies is not what flamingo feed of after all.'

'Mingo pie.' Faith answered, continuing with her job.

'I got it all Sassenach.' Said Jamie as he came back, kissing both his lasses' brow. 'Ye ken, I found again the personalised ornaments place we got Faith's and I got a new one for the bairn.'

'Oh, Jamie.' Claire said as she saw the names on the ornament "Jamie" "Claire" "Faith" and "Brian". 'You know there's a chance the baby is going to be girl.'

'No Sassenach, trust my words, we're havin' a wee lad.' Said Jamie proudly.

 

Eight Days Later

'Hello, how may I help you?' Said the shop lady to him.

'Aye, I dinna ken if ye remember me.' Said Jamie to her 'I bought this here a week ago.'

'Yes, you were having a new baby.' 

'Aye, the bairn was born three days ago.' 

'Congratulations to you and your wife.'

'The thin' is...well... I told ye to write the name Brian, because I thought we're goin' to have a lad and I wanted to name him after my own Da.' Tried to explain Jamie. 'But the bairn happened to be another wee lass.'

'Oh, well,' The lady said to Jamie, 'I can't do refunds on personalised ornaments, they're unique. I can give you another one half price with the new girl's name.'

'No, 'tis no that. My wife and I decided to still name her after my Da, just with the female version of the name, Brianna. I wanted to ken if ye would update it.' Jamie finished to explain.

'Oh, of course,' Said the lady, 'just give me a minute.'


	3. Outnumbered

'Faith, Bree, lasses, dinna run out of our sight.' Jamie to his eldest daughters as they excitedly run around the Christmas market.

They were outnumbered, that was an understatement, with two girls moving freely and two more sitting on their two sits buggy. Little Julia, barely seven-weeks-old, was fast sleep, wrapped on the blanket her gran made for her before she was born, but at two-and-a-half-years-old, Morag seemed eager to be freed from the strap to run with her sisters. Next year will be three girls to try to keep up with, Claire thought as they went. That was something that she had been thinking about on the last days, she had been offered the second more important position in the surgical department at the hospital and Claire was unsure if she would be able to cope with it and the raising of four, or more (she knew how Jamie was about children), and such an important position.

'Sometimes I wonder how your parents did it at this stage.' Claire said to Jamie.

'On my parents defense,' Jamie answered he, 'Willie, Jenny and I were old enough to manage for ourselves by the time Rabbie came to be.'

'Jamie, there's something I'd like to tell you about.' Said Claire.

'Bree, dinna eat anything without ask us first!' Jamie said, seemingly not listening to his wife, so Claire left her thoughts on a corner for a while.

'Da! Look at that!' Faith signalled Jamie a game booth giving away almost life-sized stuffed husky dogs. 'Can we try for one? Please Da.'

'Aye, please Da!' Added Bree, also enchanted by the dog plushies.

'Aye, we can give it a try.' Jamie said to them as the reached the booth. He would need two attempts, but he'd get to win the dog for his wide-smile lasses.

The visit to the market end up, as always on those times, by visiting the personalised ornament shop to get one with the new family member.

'How many children are you planning to have?' Said the shop lady, making Jamie and Claire blush. 'Four is the limit in our designs.'

'As many as God wants to give us, I suppose.' Jamie said to her as he paid for the ornament.

That was one of those moments Jamie would have liked to freeze and live on them forever. Claire and the two oldest girls decorating their first tree on their new house, as the two youngest slept peacefully on him- Julia on his arms after a feeding and a clean nappy, Morag, head on his lap, knackered by the day's excitements.

'Mam,' Bree said to Claire, elf ears coming from her new headband, 'why my name is written in two different colours in this one?'

'Your father was so dumb convinced you were going to be a boy that he got it before you were born and then had to go to fix it up.' Claire answered, making the girls laugh.

'Aye, but the lady didna have more black sharpies, so she had to use a red one.' Jamie added.

It was later that night, after the girls went to sleep, when Claire finally got the chance to talk with Jamie about her job opportunity, even if it didn't come from her.

'What's on yer mind, a nighean?' Jamie asked her as she prepared herself for sleep. 'Is it about the job?'

Claire jumped, surprised Jamie already knew about it. 'How do you know?'

'Joe told me, after Julia's birth.' Jamie answered 'That the position is between ye and some prick everyone hates and thinks he can win because ye'll be too busy with the bairns.'

'Actually, that's precisely why I'm not that sure to accept.' Claire confessed 'That position is more I could have dream of, but it would take a lot of time, and the girls are growing, and I don't want to miss that, and even I know there's a part of you who would still want us to try for a baby boy. I don't know if I can cope with everything.'

'Come here Sassenach.' Jamie said opening her arms to her. 'Ye're brave and smart, and I ken ye can do whatever ye wish for. And ye have me and all our family to help with the girls at home.' He hold her tightly and kissed her sweetly. 'And if that prick is as bad as Joe says, I want my brave and smart wife kicking his arse as his boss.'

'He is.' She answered, kissing him back. 'So, you think I should accept?'

'If it is what ye wish to do, aye.'


End file.
